Days after a scandal involving an funding scheme associated to Torres Jewelry, an analogous fraud has come to gentle in Mumbai involving the cryptocurrency ‘Coin ZX’.
The Kasturba Marg police in Mumbai on Wednesday lodged a case towards Ravi Mahaseth, the managing director of cryptocurrency platform CoinZx, and 5 others for allegedly deceiving individuals into investing in a cryptocurrency launched by his firm. Investigators suspect that the quantity concerned within the rip-off may attain as much as Rs 200 crore.
In keeping with the police, individuals throughout the nation have been duped by the corporate.
The grievance in Mumbai was lodged because the buyers panicked after studying that Mahaseth had fled to Dubai. The complainant, a 50-year-old businessman from Borivali who runs a tour and journey firm, mentioned he learnt concerning the funding agency by means of his buddy. He was allegedly informed that if he invested cash within the Coin ZX cryptocurrency scheme, he would obtain substantial returns.
“The proprietor stays in Malad and has supplied 5 per cent to twenty per cent revenue monthly to me and 1000’s of different buyers in varied schemes,” a buddy allegedly informed the complainant, he informed the police.
Mahaseth allegedly ran different funding corporations like FX & Good Bull, Good X, and Samruddhi Multi Commerce Pvt Ltd and many individuals invested cash in his schemes.
In keeping with the complainant, after a collection of conferences, he and different buyers have been persuaded to speculate massive sums of money in Coin ZX, which was projected to turn out to be “India’s Bitcoin”. The corporate allegedly offered the challenge as a high-return alternative and to achieve buyers’ belief, identified that the schemes have been backed by Mahaseth’s massive foreign currency trading enterprise.
Story continues beneath this advert
In keeping with a police officer who is part of the investigation, there was a crimson flag that the buyers ignored: the fraudsters solely accepted cash in money. “When the complainant raised the difficulty with Mahaseth, he allegedly informed him that they have been accepting solely money as a result of digital forex transactions should not but established in India,” the officer mentioned.
Police officers mentioned that the corporate had a bogus web site and would offer a login ID and password to buyers to entry it. “The victims have been informed that they might view all the main points of their funding and the Coin ZX cash they obtained by logging into the corporate’s web site. Moreover, Mahaseth defined his Coin ZX digital forex challenge and the way investing in his coin would yield important income,” an officer mentioned.
“The proprietor even drew a parallel with Bitcoin, gaining buyers’ belief by claiming that the present worth of his firm’s digital forex was solely Rs 4, however within the subsequent 20 months, the worth of this coin would attain Rs 1,600. The expansion of Coin ZX can be just like Bitcoin, whose preliminary value was solely Rs 6, nevertheless it has now reached lakhs,” the officer defined.
Subsequently, the complainant mentioned he invested Rs 24 lakh. His three pals invested Rs 10 lakh, Rs 20 lakh, and Rs 8 lakh, respectively.
Story continues beneath this advert
Later, when the complainant and his pals discovered that Mahaseth was in a authorized battle over Coin ZX, they allegedly contacted him in March 2023 however he reassured them that their cash was protected and that it could be returned with revenue after the desired interval.
“The victims additionally learnt a few case being registered towards Mahaseth and his firm in Thane, following which they approached him once more, asking him to return the cash. The accused then claimed that the Coin ZX digital forex firm had suffered a significant monetary loss, in order that they must look forward to 20 months,” the police officer mentioned.
After 20 months, on the finish of 2024, once they contacted him once more, Mahaseth allegedly saved suspending the date for compensation. They then found that he had closed his Mumbai workplace and fled to Dubai.
“Mahaseth stopped answering our calls and messages, following which we probed additional to get extra particulars on him. We found that he had defrauded us and lots of others of roughly Rs 200 crore. It additionally got here to gentle {that a} case has been registered towards Mahaseth and his associates in Hyderabad,” the complainant informed the police.
Story continues beneath this advert
The businessman then approached the Kasturba Marg police station and lodged a grievance, after which a case was registered towards Mahaseth and 5 of his associates underneath related sections of dishonest and customary intention.
